


Back to Your Roots

by MidnightCreator



Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: 2d Bendy AU, AU, Alternate Universe, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Henry Swears, Hurt/Comfort, Includes some art too, Mild Language, original AU by shinyzango
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-03
Updated: 2018-11-01
Packaged: 2018-11-08 14:36:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11083629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidnightCreator/pseuds/MidnightCreator
Summary: Henry Ross had thought he was done with animation industry.Not at his own will, but what with everything that happened since he’d left Joey Drew Studios, he really could not see any way for him to keep pursuing it and survive in the world.Well, that is until he opened his mail and found a letter from his old boss.





	1. Chapter 1

 

* * *

 

**_Dear Henry,_ **

**_It seems like a lifetime since we worked on cartoon together._ ** **_30 years really slips away, doesn’t it?_ **

**_If you’re back in town, come visit the old workshop._ ** **_There’s something I need to show you._ **

**_Your best pal,_ **

**_Joey Drew_ **

* * *

 

 

_“Why am I even doing this?”_

The graying, middle aged man, dressed in simple brown pants, a white shirt and black suspenders, sighed and looked up at the building before him. The windows that weren’t boarded up had tarps over them, the paint was faded and peeling and the sign over the entrance that had once bore ‘Joey Drew Studio’ was nothing more then a big hunk of cracking wood over the door.

Yeah, the studio had seen much better days.

Henry sighed again and pushed opened the door. The hinges whined loudly, almost like fingernails on a chalkboard. The floor creaked under Henry’s feet as he walked in.

He couldn’t help breathing in the smell of the place. Aside from the extra dust and rotting wood, the inside of the studio still had that odd mix of paper, ink and just a hint of what everyone said was the blood, sweat and tears of the animators but was really just the crummy pipes.

Henry absently looked down yellowing piece of paper in his hand, glaring slightly at the signature at the bottom before he stuffed it back into his pocket, “Okay Joey, I’m here. Now what did you want to show me?”

Silence was the only response.

Henry let out a low hiss between his teeth. _“Of course he’s not here. Good old Joey Drew, never around when you’re looking for him.”_

The entrance hall ended, opening up into the main entrance room. In the studio’s heyday, the room would have echoed all the noise from the offices and departments, the cramped quarters of the building intensifying the chatter until it felt like there were far more people at work than there really were. But now it was silent, save for the occasional creak as the building settled.

Henry couldn’t stop his head from moving to the left, looking at the open doorway that was only a few steps from him. He absently wandered into the narrow hall that led into the tiny office. He couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight of the dusty wooden desk and stool. “My old office. Ha, I wasted so much time at this desk,” drawing the little devil himself and his band of friends for hours at a time. Not even stuff for the show half the time, just sketching out the characters. Joey used to get pretty mad at how much paper Henry would ‘waste’ just doodling.

Speaking of his old boss, Henry had yet to see the man.

He ventured back into the main area of the studio and walked into another hallway. If he remembered correctly, this led into an old storage room, where the crew usually just stored odds and ends and took lunch breaks in. But the hall was very different than the one in his memory.

For one, the stench of ink had never been so strong thirty years ago and he certainly didn’t remember them having so many Bendy cutouts. They had always had just the one in the front room.

Then again, thirty years.

But what really stood out were the words painted on one of the walls. Large, bold brush strokes spelled out the words **‘DREAMS COME TRUE’** in all capital letters. It made Henry pause and stare, wondering who on earth had thought painting something like that on the wall was a good idea. But he only stopped for a moment before shaking his head and moving on towards the storage room. It was probably someone’s idea of boosting morale.

Henry stopped momentarily when he came to the wide doorway. From where he was standing, he could see some huge, mechanical looking thing sitting in the large storage room. The floor and walls were splattered in ink and a large sign reading ‘Ink Machine’ was over the doorway.

Henry frowned and stepped into the room, taking in the large machine in its entirety, “I guess this is the Ink Machine.” Henry said absently. “…wonder how you turn the thing on.”

He walked around the machine, looking for anything that resembled a switch or button. Gears and pipes stuck out of the box shaped contraption, with one huge nozzle jutting out of one end and a large puddle of ink under the mouth of the nozzle. But it didn’t seem to have any sort of ‘on’ switch.

Henry frowned and wandered back into the hallway. What was the point of having a machine to produce ink if you couldn’t even turn the thing on? Unless Joey was in charge of building the thing then he would have to jump through elaborate and unnecessary hoops to get the thing to function. Henry had never really understood Joey’s tendency to make everything into some kind of game.

But, curiosity had always been Henry’s weakness and he was already here anyway. Might as well figure out what game he needed to play to turn on the Ink Machine.

Henry made his way towards the official break room, even though no one really used to use it as one, on account that it always felt too stuffy in that room for everyone to take a breather from work.

The stench of ink grew stronger the further he went into the studio, steadily growing in intensity until he could practically taste it.

 _‘Who uses_ that _much ink? Seriously Joey, what on earth-’_

**THUNK**

Henry jumped when a board clattered to the floor in front of him.

“This place is falling apart.”

The retired animator stepped over the board and kicked it to the side. He fully intended to continue on his path after moving the broken wood until something caught the corner of his eye.

Henry’s blood ran cold at the sight of one of the old toons he used to draw, strapped down to a huge table, like some sort of morbid parody of Frankenstein. Boris the Wolf lay limp, eyes x-ed out and chest cavity cracked wide open.

“Oh…god, Joey what were you doing in here?”

Henry turned away, walking down the opposite hall in fast paced steps. _‘What whack job thought that_ that _would be okay? Seriously, it looks like something from a horror movie.’_

Henry felt an involuntary shiver run up his spine. He shook his head, trying to push aside…whatever he just saw and kept moving on to the break room.

The sight that greeted him there wasn’t much less freaky then the horror show in the previous room.

The room had been stripped of the fold out chairs and the simple wooden table. In there place sat six pedestals, three on each wall, with pictures handing over each of them. Across from the doorway, an absurdly huge lever jutted out of the wall, above it read ‘Main Power’ in big bold letter and on the left of it a smaller sign glowed lazily, reading ‘Low Pressure’.

_‘…this is excessive even for Joey.’_

Henry stepped into the break room, eyes roaming over the entire area as he walked the length of the room until he was standing in front of the power lever. He frowned and tried flipping it, only to get a sputtering, groaning sound in response and the switch flipped itself back down.

_‘Oookay, so now what?’_

He looked at one of the pedestals, looking from the flat, off white surface of it then and the picture of the musical note that hung over it. His brow furrowed thoughtfully as he tried to mentally puzzle together how all of the odds and ends laying around were supposed to fit together and yield a result. The room, however, offered very little in terms of clues.

So he went back to the hallway, scanning the walls and floor for anything to give him a hint. He nearly ran smack into a large Bendy cutout.

“Who the hell put this here?! Joey!”

No one answered.

Henry growled slightly and stepped around the Bendy cutout before continuing down the hall and towards the projector room.

Some of the tension that had wormed its way into Henry’s shoulders eased somewhat when he saw the projector room was mostly unchanged. At least he thought so until he found an extra button on the back wall, the word ‘FLOW’ glowing faintly in the dim lighting of the room.

 _‘Okay…’_ He pressed the button, only getting a small click in response. _‘Well, that didn’t work.’_

He wondered back to the hallway, scanning the area for any indication as to what the hell he was supposed to be doing, when he noticed a tape recorder sitting on a little shelf. Curious, Henry picked it up and hit play.

_ ‘At this point, I don't know what Joey's plan is for this company.’  _

Ah, Wally Franks, the janitor. Henry had always liked pulling little jokes on the guy.

‘ _The animations sure aren't being finished on time anymore. And I certainly don't see why we need this machine. It's noisy, it's messy. And who needs that much ink anyway?’_

Joey Drew apparently.

_ ‘Also, get this, Joey had each of us donate something from out work stations. We put them on these little pedestals in the break room. 'To help appease the gods' Joey says. 'Keep things going.’_

To appease the….what on Earth?

_ ‘I think he's lost his mind, but, hey, he writes the checks. But I tell you what, if one more of these pipes burst, I am outta here.’ _

Henry stood for a few moments after the tape ended, letting the information process in his brain. _“….Joey definitely got into some freaky cult at some point. But at least I have an idea of how to get that machine working.”_

He just needed an object from each department, six in total. And Henry had a few ideas of what he needed to gather up.

It took a few runs through the building, but Henry managed to get four of the objects he needed; a cogwheel, a Bendy plush doll, a vinyl record, and a wrench. That still left two more departments and there was only one room Henry had avoided.

He knew, logically, that there was now way that it was his old toon strapped down in that room. It was impossible.

But it still put Henry on edge to see Boris the wolf there. Whoever made the thing had to have been some kind of genius, Henry had briefly entertained the idea that maybe this wasn’t just a real world copy of the wolf toon when he first stepped into the room.

He shoved those thoughts aside and instead focused his attention of the rest of the room. There wasn’t much remarkable about it, other then the large, inky letters across the right wall, spelling out **‘WHO’S LAUGHING NOW?’**

It made another involuntary shudder crawl its way up the man’s spine.

He shook his head and looked down, then furrowed his brow. Next to Boris’s feet was a book. A simple, black  book with silvery lettering on the cover. Henry plucked it up and read the cover, his confusion worsening when he read the title.

“ _The Illusion of Living by Joey Drew._ ” Definitely a weird cult. “Sheesh Joey, I know me leaving was a hard hit but all of this is pretty extreme.”

He walked around the room until he found an ink well, tucked against the wall behind a chair. He took the book and ink and headed for the break room.

He dropped the book onto a pedestal, not really sure if it counted but it was all he could find that had any attachment to Joey. With an item on each little podium, Henry started to walk back towards the projector room.

_“Turn on the flow, flip main power and then I can see what all the fuss is about.”_

The man nodded to himself and looked up just in time to see something large, black and white slip around the corner.

The sudden movement made Henry freeze mid step. He cocked his head, listening for anything to indicate he wasn’t alone in the building. But all he could hear were the soft creaks of the wooden studio settling.

A sensible person would have left at that point. A sensible person would have left far before that point. Just turned around and left and never look back.

But it had taken Henry the better part of an hour to find and set up everything and he had quite a lot of things he wanted to ask Joey about. Leaving like a sensible person was out of the question in Henry’s mind.

So he pressed on down the rest of the hall. He leaned around the corner, narrowing his eyes a bit at the cutout leaning on the wall. He could not remember clearly if it was or was not there before, but he decided that it had been there the whole time, what with how many of the things were lying around.

He tapped the flow button and a low hum with a gurgling whoosh responded to him, “Okay, that should do it.”

Henry started a fast walk back to the break room and flipped down the switch. The entire building seemed to rumble to life with a huge heave and shudder before a dark substance started to flow though the pipes in the ceiling.

Henry smirked a bit as he headed back for the Ink Machine room. Sure, Joey liked making weird and over complicated puzzles just to turn on a lamp but Henry had used to love it whenever he found one of Joey’s little puzzles. It had been a bit of a running gag between them back in the day, Joey would make the puzzles and Henry would figure them out. Those days were….

Henry sighed and his paced slowed a bit. _“Dang it, don’t think about stuff like that.”_

He shook his head and squared his shoulders. Once he saw how that Ink Machine worked he was going to head back home and leave this place behind for good. If Joey wanted to talk, he had to show up within the next two minutes or come to Henry himself.

Henry nodded to himself as he turned the last corner, then his steps faltered. The door to the Ink Machine was boarded up. He could hear the gears turning inside the room and could see the machine through the gaps in the wood.

“What the-?” Henry moved closer, frowning in confusion. “Who-?”

An ear splitting screech made Henry jump back. A lanky, black, dripping figure shot up behind the blocked doorway. It growled and thrust a long, willowy arm through a gap between the boards. Hook-like fingers swiped at the air. A crooked, almost demented grin stared right at Henry.

Henry ran.

Ink started to pour from the ceiling, bleed from the walls, coating the floor in a matter of seconds. It soaked into the bottoms of Henry’s pants, sticking uncomfortably to his skin. His left leg was starting to protest the strain Henry was putting on it.

But all Henry could think was to run.

The exit was just ahead, he could practically see it just ahead of him.

He had to run, had to get out. Get out, get out, _get out!_

Henry didn’t even realize the floor had caved from under him until the sight of the door fell away, replaced by planks of wood flying past his face. An involuntary yell tore from his throat as he fell.

Faster and faster.

Down, down, and then…nothing but darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Original AU is by ShinyZango --> http://shinyzango.tumblr.com/tagged/2D-Bendy-AU


	2. Chapter 2

* * *

 

“…..ow.”

Henry groaned and rolled onto his side.

Every part of him felt sore, like his first week at boot camp. A deep seeded ache in every one of his muscles that made him just want to go to bed and not get up for a month.

“Hey!”

Henry frowned. How hard had he hit his head? He could have sworn he heard someone.

“Heeeeey. Are you awake yet?”

Okay, no, someone was definitely talking.

Henry cracked his eyes open and lifted his head.

The room he landed in looked even worse then upstairs. Everything looked to be dusted in a layer of dust and ink, some even gathering in pool in the corners or against the wall. The wallpaper was stained, stripped away in some places and the rest looked ready to rip if some just breathed on it. Pieces of broken wood were littered about and a few of the floor boards looked as though they had broken and then hastily repaired.

“Hey there fella.”

Henry frowned when he heard the voice again. It sounded so familiar but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. “Where…are you?”

“Up here, on the wall!”

“Wha-?” Henry sat up, wincing as his left leg protested the movement. _“Dammit, pushed to hard._

A small, sharp gasp made Henry look up and his jaw dropped.

He almost didn’t see the little drawing on the wall, but it was hard to eventually not catch him in one’s sights when the little black and white doodle started to jump up and down and wave his arms, “Henry! I almost didn’t recognize ya’!”

Henry blinked owlishly as he slowly got to his feet, favoring his bad leg slightly, jaw opening a shutting a few times before his voice started working again, “Bendy?”

“That’s me! And you’re Henry!” The little demon’s face stretched into an impossibly wide grin. “Golly, you look reallllly different, your hairs gotten white. When did that happen?”

Henry couldn’t really think of an answer. He was far to busy gapping at the impossibility smiling at him from the wallpaper, “Wha…you’re……how….?”

“You alright there Henry?” Bendy tilted his head slightly.

“How….how do you know me?”

Bendy giggled, “Because you created me silly! Of course I know who you are!”

“I…,” Henry couldn’t really argue. Bendy had been his original idea but the rights to the little character pretty much went entirely to Joey when he left for the war. “But how are you…how the hell…” This whole ordeal was making Henry’s head spin. That, or he had a concussion and this was all some sort of freaky dream.

The little drawing leaned to the side, looking up at the human with an almost child like puzzlement, “Uhhhh….you look kinda pale Henry. I didn’t think that fall was _too_ bad but you humans have so many rules about gravity.”

Henry shook his head, trying to clear away the confusion so he could focus, “I’m fine, I’m fine. I just didn’t….gha, this going to sound bad, but you aren’t supposed to be….alive!”

Bendy giggled again, “Well, I am!” He jumped up into a spin, as if to help prove his point.

Henry rubbed his knuckles over his eyes and blinked hard to make sure he wasn’t seeing things. The bouncing little drawing was still there, beaming like he didn’t have a care in the world.

“Okay….okay,” Henry sighed. “I don’t suppose you know what’s going on with this place?”

“Nope, sorry, I’m just as lost as you,” Bendy frowned in an exaggerated, thoughtful manner. “Buuuuuut…maybe we can figure it out together! I can’t really leave the wall but I know my way around here pretty well! It’ll be like an adventure!” Bendy nodded to himself and started running down the length of the wall, “This way Henry!”

Henry followed Bendy with his eyes as the toon ran down the wall.

He hesitated for a moment, following Bendy with his eyes. _“…Well, what do I have to lose?”_

He limped along after Bendy, moving into the hallway that was connected to the room he’d fallen into. Further down the hallway was a staircase, one that Henry grimaced at slightly before slowly making his way down. By the time he got to the second flight, Henry was quite happy that his leg had stopped shooting pins and needles up from his knee to his hip and managed to move at a more reasonable pace.

He walked down two more flights before Bendy ran into another room, “Come on, come on, come on! When did you get so slow Henry.”

Henry shrugged, “I got old.”

“Well I’m pretty old too ya’ know.”

“It’s different for me.”

Bendy giggled then ran over to a door that had wooden planks criss-crossed over it and wiggled past the frame.

Henry frowned as he approached the door. He tugged at the boards but the wood refused to budge. He looked around the room, trying to find something he could use to pry the boards off. An axe resting on two pegs on the far wall caught his eye and Henry made a beeline for it, “This will come in handy.”

He took the axe and started clearing the doorway, feeling a bit of satisfaction when the axe sliced cleanly through the wooden planks. A few more swings cleared enough room for Henry to open the door and walk into the next room.

He was greeted by a small room, with a pentagram painted in black ink and surrounded by candles on the floor and two large coffins leaning against the wall. Large blotches of ink littered the walls and floor. The only light was coming from the small, flickering candles that casted heavy shadows and gave the entire room a much more ominous feeling.

“Bendy?” Henry stepped into the room, scanning the walls for any sign of the living illustration.

The door swung shut behind him with a loud band that shook the room. Literally.

Henry gasped as the room jolted and quacked around him, an awful ringing noise started to buzz in his ears and the air suddenly felt too thick to breath.

Henry dropped to his hands and knees, gasping for air as muddled, blurry images flashing behind his eyes. He let out another strangled gasp and toppled onto his side as the world blacked out.

 

~*~

 

When Henry came to, it was to someone calling him.

_“Well this feels familiar”_

“Heeeenry!”

Henry frowned at the frightened pitch in Bendy’s voice. He managed to open his eyes a bit before shutting them again as light assaulted his retinas, “Ugh, my head.” Henry grimaced as he started to push himself into a sitting position.

“HENRY!”

He looked up to see Bendy standing on the wallpaper, looking as worried as he sounded and wringing his hands together.

“Henry! Oh my gosh, you’re okay! You are okay right? I didn’t think about that door being blocked so I came back but you were on the ground and you didn’t look so good and I got really worried-”

“Hey, it’s alright little guy,” Henry stood shakily. “Just a bit of vertigo.”

“Verta…what?”

“I got dizzy,” Henry reclaimed the axe from where it fell. “Might have something to do with the fact I haven’t eaten in awhile.”

“There’s bacon soup!” Bendy waved his arms to the right. “There is _tons_ of it. It’s supposed to last forever, right?”

Henry huffed out a laugh, “Guessing it never did catch on.”

“Nope!” Bendy shook his head, the worry slipping away as his trademark grin returned.

Henry grunted in amusement. He moved to the door that Bendy had gestured to, having to break the two boards over it before opening the door. It led to a busted up staircase, a small one, thank goodness.

Henry made his way down carefully, painfully aware of every creak and buckle in the steps. He breathed out a sigh of relief when he made it to the bottom, then looked at Bendy.

“That a’way.”

Henry looked ahead and frowned a bit at what he saw.

At the end of the little hall was a shelf with a few cans on it and some candles. But on the wall over that were words painted in black ink.

**‘HE WILL SET US FREE’**

“Who went slogan happy on all the walls,” Henry muttered absently.

“Dunno, that’s always been there,” Bendy said as he walked along next to Henry.

Henry still didn’t get it but decided to let it slide as he picked up a can of soup.

He remembered when he and Joey had thought of the stuff, but back than it had been nothing more then a inside joke combining Joey’s love of soup and Henry’s borderline addiction to bacon. Turned out the little joke was good for marketing in Joey’s mind.

_“Never did sell a whole lot of this outside of the cartoons.”_

Henry cracked open the can and downed the soup cold. Thirty years ago, he would have likely been disgusted at doing such a thing but army rations tended to deaden one’s taste buds.

Bendy didn’t seem to put out by it, he just grinned and rocked on his heels as Henry chugged the mix of greasy broth and chunks of bacon, “Feeling better.”

Henry nodded and set the empty can down, “Yeah, that helped. Thanks.”

“No problem pal!” Bendy beamed.

Henry shook his head with little laugh and started to walk farther into the room.

He didn’t recognize the room but it was defiantly much, much bigger then the basement area of the studio was supposed to be. Ink seemed to be all over the place and Henry felt a small shiver at the sight of two more wooden coffins leaning on a far wall. He stepped into the center of the room and looked around, “How did this place get so big?”

“Hasn’t it always been this big?”

Henry shook his head, “Maybe from your perspective but this place was defiantly not this big from mine.”

Bendy shrugged, “Well, you’ve been gone for a long time.”

Henry made a low humming sound. He couldn’t really argue with that piece of logic, who knew how much of the studio had been renovated in his absence. He looked to his right and scanned the shelf on the wall by the entrance. A tape recorder was sitting amongst the candles and ink splatters.

“Wonder what’s on this,” Henry walked over and hit play.

_ ‘He appears from the shadows to rain his sweet blessings upon me. The figure of ink that shines in the darkness, I see you, my savior, I pray you hear me.’ _

Henry frowned a bit at the voice. It sounded so much like Sammy, the old music director, but the voice coming from the tape had a calmness and peace to it that Sammy never once had in his entire time working at the studio.

_ ‘Those old songs, yes, I still sing them. For I know you are coming to save me. And I will be swept away in you final, loving embrace. But, love requires sacrifice. Can I get an amen?’ _

When the tape stopped, Henry looked over at Bendy questioningly. The little demon shook his head and shrugged.

Henry shrugged in return, “Guess we should just press on.”

“Right-o!” Bendy gave a little salute.

Henry smiled a bit and moved towards the doorway across from the self where the tape was. He followed the hall down a ways, Bendy trotting along next to him from the wall, until it turned into a flooded part of the hallway. Henry wrinkled his nose a bit at the sight but he really didn’t have a lot of options.

He waded in, the ink coming up to his knees, sticking to his trousers and sloshing around him in thick ripples. But he trudged on, slowly but surely, and his leg was starting to act up again, but he managed.

The room he found himself in split off in several directions with the focal point being a large sign with a design of sheet music and note surrounding the name of the department.

“Music Department,” Henry absently read aloud.

There was another tape player sitting a small self on the wall, so Henry plucked it down and hit play.

_ ‘So first, Joey installs this Ink Machine over our heads.’ _

Ah, now this tape sounded more like Sammy.

_ ‘Then it begins to leak. Three times last month, we couldn’t even get out of our department because ink had flooded the stairwell. Joey’s solution? An ink pump to drain it periodically. Now I have this ugly pump switch right in my office. People in and out all day. Thanks, Joey. Just what I needed. More distractions. These stupid cartoon songs don’t write themselves, you know.’ _

“Does he always sound that grumpy?” Bendy asked.

Henry set the recorder down, “Usually, yeah. He’s pretty picky about his working conditions. He used to have an office more like mine but he pitched such a fit Joey gave him a better one.” He moved in the hall on the left and started up the stairs.

“Oh no!”

Henry looked down at Bendy, “What’s wrong?”

“That,” Bendy gestured to the wall in front of him, where the wallpaper was striped almost completely clean. “I can’t go any farther! How am I supposed to guide you through the workshop now?! We have only just met and yet we are already goin’ to be separated.”

Henry blinked as the toon continued to lament. He looked around and spotted some small pieces of paper that had been taped to the wall.

It was like a light buld had gone off in his head.

He grabbed one of the papers and went back to Bendy, who had collapsed to his knees at some point.

“And to think, we could have been best friends. Such good friends…”

Henry huffed and soaked the tip of one finger in an ink puddle, before drawing a quick line and flattening the paper against the wall next to Bendy. The toon glanced over, confusion pinching his window’s peak brows together.

“It’s a paper page,” Henry said. “Can you get on it?”

Bendy stood, looking from Henry to the paper then back at Henry. After a second, he jumped up, gliding seamlessly over the line where wall and page met and landed on the thick stroke that Henry had made as a platform. He stared at the line, then back up at Henry.

Henry smiled in return, “There we go. Now I can carry you around as you guide me.”

Bendy blinked, eyes widening in what Henry could only describe as wonder, “Henry….you’re….” A wide grin, bigger and brighter the Henry had ever seen it, split across Bendy’s face. “You’re a GENIUS!”

Henry chuckled, “I wouldn’t go that far.”

“But you are!” Bendy insisted. “I would have never thought of this!”

Henry shrugged and continued up the stairs. The steps led to a booth that overlooked a large recording studio, with a chair sitting behind a projector and another tape player sitting on the ledge. Henry settled in the chair and started the tape.

_‘Every day the same strange thing happens.’_

Henry frowns a bit when he doesn’t recognize the voice coming from the tape.

_‘I’ll be up here in my booth, the band will be swinging and suddenly Sammy Laurence just comes marching in and shuts the whole thing down. Tells us all to wait in the hall. Then I hear him. He starts up my projector and he dashes from the projection booth and down to the recording studio like the little devil himself was chasing behind.’_

That was pretty weird, even for the eccentric Sammy.

_‘Few seconds later, the projector turns off. But Sammy, he doesn’t come out for a long time. This man is weird. Crazy weird. I have half a mind to talk to Mr. Drew about all this, I really do. But then again, I have to admit, Mr. Drew has his own peculiarities.’_

“This guy must’ve been hired on after I left.”

Bendy made a low hum of agreement, “I think his name is Norman. He handled making sure we all sounded okay.”

“I thought that was Sammy’s job,” Henry stood and wondered back down the stairs.

“It was but we got more people after you left,” Bendy paused for a moment. “Why did you leave anyway?”

Henry’s steps faltered slightly and his grip on the axe tightened, “…I got drafted.”

Bendy’s brow pinched slightly in confusion, “What does that mean?”

“Means I had to go and fight a war.”

Bendy gasped, a tab bit more dramatically then Henry thought was necessary.

“Lot’s of men were drafted. They needed soldiers so we fought.”

“But you were happy here!”

“Yeah, I was.” Henry sighed heavily. “But I didn’t really have a choice in the matter.”

Bendy grew very quite for a few moments, “But….you’re here now.” The toon perked up and beamed at Henry. “So that means everything turned out a-okay!”

Henry smiled, “Yeah, everything turned out okay.” Aside from the bad leg and nightmares, Henry thought he got off pretty dang easy.

They moved back into the main entrance and into the right hallway that lead into the recording studio. The room wasn’t as big as it was tall, the roof almost disappearing amongst the rafters and shadows. There was a stage with chairs, music stands, a few instruments and a stained projector string up over it. There was also a large player piano against one wall and a smaller recoding booth that was for the voice actors and singers.

“Whoa!” Bendy’s pie cut eyes sparkled slightly as he took in the room. “Is this where the music comes from?”

“Kind of,” Henry walked over towards the actor’s booth. “This is where we recorded it anyway.” He looked around the room but found nothing noteworthy so he went back out to the entrance area. There was a third door, one with a sign that said ‘Stairs’.

Henry stepped into the doorway and frowned when he saw the stairs were almost completely flooded in ink.

Bendy made a low whistling sound, “That’s a lot of ink.”

“Yeah,” Henry nodded. “Maybe if we find Sammy’s office we could drain it.”

“Oh, ohoh!” Bendy waved his arms in the general direction behind Henry, “There was a gate thingy by the recording studio, maybe it’s in there!”

“Maybe,” Henry leaned back so he could look at the said gate. “But we need to turn on the power to open the thing.” He looked back to the stairs, then at the walls before finding what he wanted.

The switch was…large. Far larger then Henry thought was necessary. But it said power so he flipped it. A low hum followed by a series of light clicking on responded. Bendy gave a cheer as the gate started to whirr open.

“We have lights,” Henry quipped. “Now let’s find that pump and get-HOLY!”

Henry had turned around to head for the new path, only for an ink puddle to jump at him. He instinctively lashed out at it, smashing the axe against it and scattering ink across the floor.

“Henry, look out!”

Henry spun in time to see more puddles of ink bubbling up and taking disfigured forms that vaguely resembled human ones. Except they were composed almost fully of ink, dripping the black substance from their bulbuls head, too skinny arms and torsos and the long, thin claws that reached for Henry.

Henry swung the axe and held the paper with Bendy over his head, trying to keep the little toon out of the way as much as possible. One of the ink creatures lunged and Henry brought the axe down onto its head with a wet squelching sound. It dissolved into a puddle but there were many more behind it, all closing in on Henry and Bendy.

Henry continued to fight them off, even while he was slowly forced back against a wall and more and more of the things appeared at a much faster rate then Henry could hit them down.

One of the things managed to grab Henry’s leg and pulled. Henry yelped and shook the creature off, but he still stumbled back and slammed into the wall. The hit was hard enough that his grip on the paper slipped and then Bendy’s terrified yelling mixed in with the creature’s moans.

“HENRY! HENRY HELP!” The demon screeched as his paper was swallowed up by the mass of ink monsters.

“BENDY!” Henry tried to run forward and grab the paper but the ink monsters were too thick, he couldn’t get through.

He felt hands grabbing at his legs, pulling and dragging. He swung his axe and managed to hit a few before some of them seized his arm and forced him to drop his weapon. Henry was forced to the ground as more and more monster pressed in around him. He gasped for air as ink started to coat his entire body, trashing and kicking and trying desperately to free himself. But without the axe, his blows were ineffective and his strength was starting to wane.

Henry looked around desperately for his axe or anything he could use as a weapon but all he could see was ink on all sides.

“Bendy!” He called desperately but he could no longer hear anything but the moans and groans of the ink monsters.

_“This is how I die. Killed by ink monsters in my old workplace.”_

He was starting to grow dizzy from the overwhelming stench of ink. He heaved for air and made one last ditch effort to break free.

But it wasn’t working.

He was going to die.

He survived the freaking war and now he was going to die.

Then…everything seemed to freeze.

There was a low, almost burbling sound, like water that was being boiled. It was loud and almost filled the room. Then a rumble and a whoosh as something huge and black shot up from the middle of the ink monsters. It slammed down and was quickly followed by another pillar of black.

The pressure around Henry suddenly lifted as the ink monsters were slapped aside by a massive hand.

Henry looked up, eyes widening as he took in the huge, bulky form before him.

“B-Bendy?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ta-da, part 2!  
> Thanks for reading and I hope you have an awesome day.  
> Original AU is by ShinyZango --> http://shinyzango.tumblr.com/tagged/2D-Bendy-AU


	3. Chapter 3

* * *

 

He was dreaming. This was all just a very weird, trippy dream and he was going to wake up in his apartment at any second.

The monstrous Bendy before him stared with its one visible eye, the other being hidden behind a layer of dripping ink, the white bow tie hung limp and ragged. The bulky form nearly filled the room and the ink covering his body looked to be flowing upwards and floating off before evaporating into thin air.

Henry gulped and tried to slow down the rapid rate of his heart with a few deep breaths, “Bendy?”

The massive Bendy stared at Henry for a few seconds before his face seemed to liquefy. Ink plopped onto the floor in huge splashes as the large Bendy melted down into nothing but a puddle of black with a tiny speck of white in the middle.

Henry scrabbled to his feet and stumbled over to the paper. He pulled it out and waited a moment while the ink dripped off to reveal the little Bendy on his hands and knees, looking exhausted.

“Hey, you alright little guy?” Henry tried to wipe away some of the excess ink from the page.

Bendy gave a cough that made his whole body shake, “Just…give me…five minutes.”

Henry nodded and scooted back enough to sit against the wall, “What…happened?”

“I….I…I dunno,” Bendy gave a small shudder before looking up at Henry. “I just…you were in danger and I was scared and it just kind of…happened!”

“Hey, calm down little guy,” Henry’s hand moved up almost automatically to run his fingers over Bendy’s back in a soothing manner. “It’s okay. We’ll figure it out.”

Bendy visibly relaxed into the touch and Henry wondered if the toon could feel his hand. All Henry could feel was inky paper.

It took a few minutes for him to fully calm, but eventually Bendy sat up and offered a weak smile, “I’m okay now.”

Henry smiled back, “Good to hear. Ready to get moving?”

Bendy nodded and jumped to his feet, “Yeah! Let’s go find that pump!”

Henry chuckled and pulled himself up to his feet. He looked around the room until he spotted his axe, half buried in ink. With his axe in his left hand and Bendy’s paper in his right Henry started towards the recently opened gate that he hoped led to Sammy’s office.

The hallway they found themselves in was long, with a few doors and alternate halls branching off. But none of them were accessible whether it was due to the doors being locked or the other halls being blocked by piles of old chairs and barrels. At the end of the hall was a large sign over a window, with **‘Office of SAMMY LAWRENCE Music Department Director’** printed on it. Henry looked for the door, only to find a leaky pipe was dripping ink all over it.

“Well Sammy got an upgrade.” Henry commented as he peered into the window. “Kinda.”

The interior was pretty sparse, a desk and chair on one wall and switch labeled pump on another. On the wall facing the window was another ink phrase, this one saying **‘IT’S TIME TO BELIEVE’**. Henry frowned at it while he absently tapped the window.

_“Could try breaking it…then again…broken glass.”_

He set Bendy down, propping up the paper on the window before wading into the ink, grimacing when the leak fell over him, and tried the door, “Locked.”

Bendy frowned from his page, “So we gotta find the keys?”

“Yup,” Henry stepped back onto dry ground and shook off as much ink as he could. “Maybe Wally left his keys lying around somewhere. He was always losing them in the weirdest of places.”

“Then there’s no time to lose!” Bendy jumped up and down eagerly as Henry picked him back up. “Let’s find those keys!”

Henry smiled at the toon’s upbeat attitude. It was really quite difficult to feel completely down in the dumps with how infectious Bendy’s positivity was.

The pair started to retrace their steps, examining every place that could be hiding keys; cracks in the floorboards, under chairs and in the trash cans. Henry warily eyed every large pool of ink they passed, watching for any bubbles or deformed human-like monsters.

“Have you ever seen those…ink monster things before?”

Bendy held up a hand and made the universal sign of ‘kinda’, “I heard them before but I never knew what it was. This is the first time I’ve seen any.”

“So you probably don’t know where they came from.”

“No,” Bendy shook his head. “Sorry.”

“Hey, don’t be sorry little guy,” Henry smiled. “You don’t need to know everything that’s happening.”

Bendy smiled back, looking a little relieved, “Hey Henry.”

“Hmm?”

“Can you do that thing again?”

Henry frowned, “What thing?”

“That…thing you did before.”

Henry thought for a moment before it clicked, “You mean this?”

He traced his finger tip over Bendy’s head, electing a nod from the toon, “Yeah. That feels…it feels really nice.”

Henry chuckled and lightly scratched between Bendy’s horns, taking care not to rip the paper.

They kept searching, with Henry absently giving Bendy little pets over his head and along his back every now and again. Their search took them back into the recording studio.

Henry started to peer under chairs and behind the larger instruments, “If those keys aren’t in here then that just leaves the projector booth or their at the bottom of that ink flood.”

“I could get them if they are,” Bendy stood a bit straighter. “Just drop me in the ink and I’ll turn big.”

“Thanks little guy but we should avoid that bigger form until we figure some more stuff out.”

“But it can be really useful! I took care of those monster things in a snap!”

“You looked pretty shaken when you got back on the page.”

“Because I’ve never done that before. I know what to expect now!”

Henry smiled as he looked under the last chair, “Still, let’s not push our limits too much, okay?”

Bendy frowned but nodded, “Okay.”

Henry could hear the slight disappointment in Bendy’s voice but he really did not want to mess around with…whatever Bendy had transformed into. They could experiment later but not at that moment, not when Henry felt like someone was staring at him.

Henry stared to check the trash cans when Bendy let out a little squeak, “Henry?”

“What?” Henry looked around then at Bendy.

The toon pointed up, towards the projector booth. Henry let his gaze wander up and nearly let out his own yelp of surprise.

A figure was up in the walled off half of the booth, tall and covered in ink, with beige overalls and a mask that was in Bendy’s likeness. The soulless pie-cut eyes of the mask stared down at Henry.

“Hey!” Henry straightened, falling into a defensive stance. “Who are you?”

The figure did not answer.

“Hey, I’m talking to you! Who are you?”

The figure just stared. It made a shiver of unease travel up Henry’s spine.

A low groan sounded behind Henry and he spun around in time to see an ink monster reaching out a hand to grab at him. Henry swung his axe, slicing the monster across its chest, making it reel back with a loud hiss. More ink monsters emerged, the pools of ink seemed to bubble up from the cracks in the floorboards before the monster formed and started to move towards Henry.

Henry held his axe at the ready, tightening his jaw and bracing his feet.

Bendy started to jump up and down, “Henry! I can help! Just put me in an ink puddle.”

“Can’t,” Henry slashed at another ink monster. “These things are sapping it all up.”

Whatever ink had once been in the room was almost eaten up completely by the monsters. When Henry managed to hit one hard enough to melt it the ink it was composed of seemed to be absorbed by the floor.

Henry swung at another ink monster, hitting it square on the head before slashing another one through the middle. Both melted into little more then little dribbles of ink. Another monster made a grab for Henry’s ankles and the man jumped back from the clawed fingers and landed a blow on it.

Henry’s eyes darted around the room, taking in how many enemies were left. There weren't as many as there had been in the first encounter but it was enough for Henry to know that one handed wasn’t going to do it. “Sorry buddy.”

“Sorry for-? HEY!”

Henry deposited Bendy onto the top of the piano, where he hoped the toon would be out of reach from the ink monsters. With both hands free, Henry had a better grip on his axe and, more importantly, could put more force into his blows. The axe blade whistled through the air before it hit an ink monster with a wet squelch. The remaining monsters' groans turned into low hisses as more of them fell and they started to swarm around Henry.

The man growled and swung his axe as hard as he could, managing to slice through two of the ink monsters at once. He hefted the axe over his head and brought it down on a third, slashed through a forth, then a fifth, another swipe brought down a sixth. Then everything froze.

Henry stood stock still, chest heaving with each inhale. He glanced up at the booth over his head and found that the figure there had disappeared.

“Henry?”

The little voice made Henry jump, “Yeah, yeah, everything’s fine Bendy.”

Henry picked the paper up and leaned against the piano, trying to take a little weight off his leg.

Bendy looked worried as he took in Henry, “You’re breathing weird.”

Henry snorted and coughed into his fist, “Panting. Haven’t…done any fighting…in awhile. Not as young…as I used to be either.”

“But you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine buddy,” Henry looked around the room. “Now let’s see if we can get those keys without any more surprises. We just have to check the trash cans, right?”

Bendy was quite for a few seconds, still staring up at Henry with a worried pinch in his brow, then slowly nodded, “Yeah, that sounds right.”

Henry nodded as well and leaned over the bin closest to him, “…well I’ll be damned.” Henry reached into the can and pulled out a ring of keys. “That was quick.”

Bendy grinned and bounced on the balls of his feet, “Now we can get rid of that big ol’ ink flood.”

Henry nodded and limped his way back towards Sammy’s office.

Bendy took notice, “You’re limping! You said you were fine.”

“I am. My leg just likes to act up sometimes.”

“You should sit down for a minute,” Bendy crossed his arms and started to tap his foot.

“It’ll stop in a minute,” Henry shrugged as he turned into the hall that went to the office. “Besides, I don’t really want to stick around if more of those ink monsters show up…or that guy that was in the booth.”

Bendy gave a shudder, which shook his whole body in an exaggerated fashion, “That guy gave me the creeps.”

Henry nodded in agreement as they approached Sammy’s office. Henry set Bendy down on the window sill before sloshing into the ink spill. It took a few tries to get the key in and turn it without it slipping out of his hand, but he finally managed to swing the door open.

There wasn’t much to the office that Henry had already seen outside; a desk, chair, writing on the wall and the ink pump switch. Henry shook off some of the ink and wiped it from his face before moving toward the pump and flipping the switch. There was a loud gurgling noise and another sound that Henry assumed was the ink running through pipes.

He reemerged from the office and was greeted by Bendy’s grinning face, “Did it work?”

“Let’s hope so,” Henry ran his fingers through his hair and spat out the bits that had gotten into his mouth.

Bendy jumped from one foot to the other as Henry picked him up and headed for the stairs, “I can’t wait! This has been so exciting. It’s scary sometimes but it’s still exciting!”

Henry chuckled, “Good to see you’re happy. Maybe we can find an exit one we-”

It happened too quickly for Henry to react properly. One second he was talking to Bendy and the next he was on the floor with a pounding ache on the back of his head. He distantly heard Bendy shout, but everything around him was muffled and blurry.

Henry blinked and tried to lift his head, but he could do much more then turn it. The figure from the booth was standing over him, looking intimidatingly tall. The person stared at Henry before their head turned to the paper in his hand. 

Henry made a low keening sound of protest as the stranger bent and picked up Bendy’s paper. They stared at it before ripping the paper clean in half.

Henry felt his stomach drop and he desperately tried to reach out and grab the stranger, stop them, get Bendy away from them, anything!

But his body refused to listen and the black that was at the edges of Henry’s vision started to close in.

The last thing he saw was the stranger tossing the scraps of paper over their shoulder before the world went dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Threeeeee!  
> Original AU is by the amzing ShinyZango --> http://shinyzango.tumblr.com/  
> This chapter was Beta-ed by the lovely EmeraldTooth --> http://archiveofourown.org/users/EmeraldTooth/pseuds/EmeraldTooth
> 
> Thanks for reading and have an awesome day. :)


	4. Chapter 4

“There we are…allll nice and tight.”

Henry groaned as the voice caused a sharp spike of pain in his skull.

“We don’t want our sheep wondering away…do we?”

Henry frowned at the voice. He knew it, he knew who owned that voice. But where..…Sammy?

“Ah…so you know of me.”

Oh, must have said that aloud.

Henry scrunched his brow before managing to open his eyes. Before him stood Sammy, covered in ink and wearing a Bendy mask. Henry tried to move, only to find that he couldn’t and it took a few seconds for him to realize his hands were bound behind him and his back was against something that felt like a wooden beam. The edges of his vision were still fuzzy and he felt exhausted, but he could tell that this room was not one he had been in before.

“I must admit, I am…honored that you’ve come to see me.”

“Where…” Henry shook away some of the dizziness muddling up his thoughts. “What did you do to Bendy?”

Sammy’s head cocked slightly to the side, “Bendy…?” He paused, leaning in closer to Henry. “You mean that insulting fraud you were carrying around?”

Henry tried to lean away, attempting to keep the stench of ink and rot that was coming off of Sammy in waves as far away from him as possible. But the beam hindered his escape from the smell.

Sammy clenched both his hands and made a tearing motion, “I tore that pathetic abomination apart…a fitting fate for such an insulting ink stain.”

“Y-you…” Henry froze. Something in him twist painfully as an image of the little toon being ripped into small shreds flashed through his mind. His breath hitched and his head dropped

“You feel bad for it…” Sammy’s let out a low scoff. “You disgust me.” An inky hand grabbed Henry’s chin and forced him to look up at the cracked and ink stained mask that was over Sammy’s face. “But you do have some use. You will be the perfect sacrifice to my lord. And when he sees my dedication he shall free me from this…prison I call a body.”

The former music director stepped back, releasing Henry’s jaw and throwing both arms into the air, “Let the ritual begin! Hear me, my savior, and see my sacrifice to you!”

Henry winced at the sudden increased volume that did nothing to ease his headache.

Sammy continued, throwing back his head and yelling, “Take this tender sheep, my lord, and free me from my chains!”

Sammy’s prayers were answered by a splintering crash and a door flying across the room, making them both jump.

A huge, dripping Bendy stood in the doorway, with a wide, almost manic, looking smile on his face, the single visible eye wide and the white pupil narrowed down to a tiny dot.

Henry froze as his eyes darted up and down the huge Bendy. He knew his Bendy had a large form but…there was no way this was _his_ Bendy. Not if what Sammy had said was true.

Said maniac stepped back slightly as Bendy lumbered into the room, “M-my lord! I have brought you-” A huge hand seized up Sammy and threw him down as if he was nothing more then a rag doll.

The monstrous Bendy snarled and slammed Sammy against the wall then started to punch the crumpled for repeatedly. Henry watched it unfold with eyes wide and breathe coming in short puffs. He wanted to believe that this was his Bendy…but getting his hopes up…it…

Henry shook his head, trying to clear his muddled thoughts. _“Must be more concussed then I thought.”_

He looked up and was met by a white pupil set in a black eye. Henry froze again, holding his breath, unsure of how to react. They stayed still for a few moments, just staring at each other.

Finally, the Monster Bendy moved closer and Henry tensed in anticipation. But instead of causing pain, Bendy just reached around and snapped the rope holding Henry secure to the beam. Henry’s hands tingled as circulation returned and he rubbed absently at his wrists as he continued to look up at the ink demon looming over him, “Bendy?”

Bendy blinked. Once, then twice, then fat, black tears started to leak from his eye and a low whine rose from his throat.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” Henry smiled, ignoring the pounding headache in favor of trying to calm Bendy down. Calm _his_ Bendy down, “You did great buddy, it’s all over now.”

Bendy whined again and moved closer to Henry, wrapping the man up in an inky hug that almost completely encased the man’s upper body. Henry stiffened at the contact momentarily, but quickly returned the gesture, “Yeah, you did a good job buddy.”

It had been so long since Henry had had a proper hug. He couldn’t even remember the last time he was hugged. He’d nearly forgotten how warm and calming it felt for someone to simply wrap their arms around him. Even with the amount of ink sliding off Bendy and onto him, Henry felt the last of the tension leave his shoulders.

He breathed out a sigh of relief before stepping back to look up at Bendy, “I’m glad you’re alright buddy. But…what happened to your paper? Sammy said he tore it apart.”

Bendy wiped away the remnants of his tears before reaching into his chest. His hand seemed to melt for a moment before reforming and extending towards Henry. Confused, the man extended his own hand and let Bendy place his large, black palm into Henry’s small, tanned one.

The monster form collapsed almost immediately, ink falling to the floor with a splash before it spread out all over the place and coating Henry’s hand. His first instinct was to cheek the ink puddle, but he saw no sign of any kind of paper amongst the thick liquid. He looked back at his hand as the ink collected there started to run off his palm.

All the tension snapped back into him like the crack of a whip when he saw what was sitting in his hand, “Bendy!”

“H-hey…Henry.” Bendy tried to smile, but it was wobbly at best, a far cry from the usually beam he wore.

The toon was curled up on a tiny scrap of paper, barely big enough to cover Henry’s palm. Bendy was trembling and looked sickly but the biggest blow to Henry was the ragged little stump where Bendy’s leg was supposed to be.

Henry could feel himself start to shake, weather it was from rage or fear or a combination of both, he wasn’t sure, “Good god, you…you’re leg…the paper…how…how are you alive?!”

A low groan from Sammy made Henry whip around. They couldn’t stick around, there was no telling what might happen if Sammy woke up and Henry did not want to get into a fight with Bendy in his current state.

Henry headed for the large door that was across from where he had been tied, moving as fast as he could through the hallway, “Just sit tight buddy, I’ll fix you up in no time. We just need to find a pen and a new paper. You’ll be back to you’re old self in no time.”

Bendy nodded slowly, “I-I know Henry.”

Henry nodded firmly in return, more to ground himself then to agree with Bendy. He felt like everything was caving in around him. He had to fight down the urge to close his hand around the paper and hold it as close to his chest as he could. But he settled for carefully cupping his hands around the scrap as he looked around for anywhere that drawing supplies might be held.

He rounded a corner and was greeted by a room flooded with ink and a door on the far wall. Henry made his way towards it, mentally hoping that it led to somewhere useful. He was half way through the flooded room when the ink in front of him exploded upwards, making Henry stumble back with a surprised yelp.

Another Bendy stood before Henry, but it was very different then the drawn and monster forms of his Bendy. It was tall and gaunt looking, with limbs that were too long for its thin torso, fingers tipped with long claws. The horns atop its head were crooked and misshapen and its face was almost completely hidden by ink except for the wide, sharp smile that was stretched impossibly far across its face.

Henry’s mind briefly flicked back to the main floor and the Ink Machine room. _‘How did it…that room was boarded up.’_

But Henry didn’t have time to dwell because the thin Bendy had set its sights on him and was limping its way towards closer. Henry turned and ran down another hallway, putting as much distance between himself and the scrawny Bendy as he could.

Running turned out to be a very bad idea when his leg gave a sudden spam and sent Henry reeling into the wall.

“Henry!” Bendy cried out as Henry hissed in pain and continued down the hall, limping and leaning heavily on the wall.

“I’m okay,” Henry gritted out.

He risked a quick glance over his shoulder and tried to quicken his pace when he saw that their pursuer had yet to give up. He turned back to look forward and saw a open door only a few paces ahead.

Henry set his jaw and shoved off the wall, giving himself one last burst of speed and dived through the door. He slammed it shut, knocking down a wooden plank in the process, that slotted into a metal sleeve with a snap. Seconds later a steady banging started to come form the other side of the door, prompting Henry to move farther into the new area until he couldn’t hear the _thud, thud, thud_ of the other Bendy pounding on the door. Only then did he allow himself to stop and lean fully against the wall, chest heaving at the exertion he’d just put himself through. His leg ached, his head ached, his whole body just had that deep seeded ache that really should not hurt as much as it did. _“I’m getting to old for this kind of exercise.”_

He almost sat himself down right where he was, but when he looked down to his hand he was reminded of the other thing that he needed to do before he took a time out.

He started walking down the hall, looking for, at the very least, a piece of scrap paper that Bendy could transfer to or for any extra pens laying around.

A tiny whine from Bendy caught his attention, “Hey, you holding out okay?”

Bendy nodded, “’m okay.” He looked up at Henry with wide, teary eyes. “But…w-what was….that?”

“I have no idea. But we got to get you fixed up before we dwell on that.”

Bendy nodded and curled up on the paper, tucking his face into his knee. The sight made Henry’s chest tighten a bit. Bendy had always been pretty small in his 2-dimensional form but looking at him at that moment, he looked shockingly tiny.

Henry looked around until he finally found a door. Opening it, he stepped into a room with a desk and chair in one corner and the rest of the wall space filled with shelves, each holding an assortment of boxes, books and, to Henry’s relief, paper.

He grabbed a sheet of the yellowed paper and poked around on the shelves and in the boxes until he located a pen. He drew a line onto the new paper then held the old piece next to it, “Can you get over onto this one?”

Bendy looked up and nodded.

It wasn’t anything like the first paper transfer, when Bendy had jumped from the wallpaper to the drawing paper within a second. Bendy was completely drained this time, slowly crawling off the old paper corner and onto the thin, crisp line on the new paper. It was a little painful for Henry to watch.

When Bendy was situated on the line, Henry discarded the soggy scrap paper and got to work redrawing Bendy’s leg. He worked slowly, doing his best to mimic what it was supposed to look like without the help of penciled guidelines.

He had started on the curve of the boot when Bendy gave a snort.

“What?”

“You’re doing that thing.”

Henry paused in his work and frowned, “What thing?”

“You poke out your tongue when you draw. Like this,” Bendy stuck out the tip of his tongue from the side of his mouth. “Nearly forgot how funny it looks.”

Henry’s brow pinched in confusion, “I don’t do that.”

“Yes you do,” Bendy argued. “You do it all the time.”

Henry huffed but a small smile started to creep onto his face as he carefully finished inking in the leg and shoe. When he was done he leaned back to examine his work, “How’s that?”

Bendy lifted up his new leg and gave it a hard shake. Any messy edges or slight mistake that were in the new limb smoothed out until it matched the old limb, “Welp, I can use it.”

Henry sighed in relief, “That’s good. I was worried there for a minute.”

The two sat for a moment, just breathing, letting all the adrenaline from the last few minutes drain from their systems.

Henry was the one who finally broke the silence, “How are you feeling?”

“I…,” Bendy looked up, eyes watery looking. “I was so scared. I-I thought that I was done for and then you were gone and I couldn’t find you at first and then when I heard Sammy I just couldn’t think right and…and…”

“Breathe buddy,” Henry tried to sooth the toon but the exertion was catching up with him and made his voice to breathy to calm Bendy down.

Bendy had both hands clutched to his head, the teary eyed look morphing into one of panic, “And then we saw that…that other me! Was it a copy?”

“Bendy,” Henry tried again.

It seemed to do nothing for the toons panic. “Does that make me a copy? What if I turn into that? What if I hurt you? What if-”

“Bendy!” Henry flicked his finger across the page. “Snap out of it!”

There was a cartoonishly loud _thwack_ that snapped Bendy’s head almost completely around. An exaggerated bruise swelled up on Bendy’s cheek and he looked pretty shocked by the sudden blow, but he had calmed down enough for Henry to talk.

“Look…I’m just as confused as you are. Things have just been getting crazier and crazier since I got here and I don’t even have the faintest idea how everything got so bad in my absence. But if there is one sane thing in this entire place it’s definitely you. Maybe you’re a copy, maybe you’re not. But I don’t care because if it weren’t for I would be dead several times over by now.”

The tears of panic had cleared from Bendy’s face while Henry talked, replaced by an expression that Henry really couldn’t identify.

He heaved a deep breath before continuing, “We may not know the answers right now but we will sooner or later. And if we stick together, I’d bet anything that we’ll be just fine.”

Bendy blinked for a moment, brow pinched ever so slightly as if he was processing what Henry had said. He looked down thoughtfully, rubbing the lump on his cheek before shaking his head. When the motion blur faded, the bruise had disappeared and Bendy was smiling with a look of determination on his features, “You’re right Henry! Sorry I lost it there for a minute, must be all the stress gettin’ to me.”

Henry chuckled at Bendy’s restored enthusiasm. Seeing the toon have the equivalent of an identity crises felt so wrong and out of character. The fact that Bendy could bounce back so quickly did wonders for the man’s own stress, “It’s fine, no harm done buddy.”

Bendy grinned up at Henry and opened his mouth as if to say something else, but a long yawn came out instead, “Whoa, excuse me.”

“Tired?”

“Maaaaaybe a lil’ bit.”

Henry gave a yawn of his own, one that was quite a bit shorter and lower then Bendy’s, “Me too, why don’t we take a break in here before we get moving again?”

“Oki-doki,” Bendy yawned again before laying down and curling up.

Henry smiled as the toon started to snore. He got up and set Bendy on the desk before moving some of the boxes to barricade the door. With that done he moved back to the desk and settled down in the chair, folding his arms on the desk as a makeshift pillow.

He absently reached up to feel the spot on the back of his head. He winched when his finger brushed against the bump on his skull. The hair around the area felt stiff and crusty and Henry didn’t need to look to know it was dried blood. He felt around until he found a small cut. It felt like it had stopped bleeding so he let his hand fall from the injury. Henry closed his eyes as his fatigue took over. He doubted he could move from the spot even if he wanted to.

All was quite, with only the sounds of exaggerated snores of the cartoon demon and the deep breaths of the human.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See, Bendy's fine and Henry is fine. Everything is A-Okay!  
> ...... :)  
> Anyway, this may be the last chapter for awhile because I want to wait for Chapter Three to come out and how it will be incorporated into the 2D Bendy AU.  
> The story will continue it's just gonna be on hiatus for a lil' bit.
> 
> And with that, thank you for reading, leave a comment on what you think and I hope y'all have an amazing day. :3


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry I didn't update for over a year! I swear, future chapters will come out a lot sooner!  
> And now, onto the new update!

Henry couldn’t decide if he felt better or worse when he woke up. He was rested but still sore, his back and neck were stiff and achy and the cooling ink sticking to his clothes was uncomfortable. But slightly more worrying was the dry feeling in his mouth.

Henry didn’t really remember the last time he had anything to drink and the Bacon Soup he had wasn’t really helpful in terms of staying hydrated. He would have to find some sort of water supply, maybe even start gathering stuff. There was no telling how long he would be wandering around in the studio.

His thoughts were interrupted by a loud yawn next to his head.

Henry opened his eyes and saw Bendy stretching, spine bending back much farther then it physically should and head floating upwards slightly. He looked leagues better then he had yesterday, or maybe not yesterday, Henry’s watch was pretty much useless after his fall. Bendy rubbed at his eyes before turning to look at Henry.

Henry smiled and sat up a bit, “Sleep well?”

Bendy grinned, “Yessir-y! I’m as bright eyed as a chipmunk!”

Henry snorted and stretched his arms over his head, wincing a bit as his back popped, “Good. We should get going, see if we can find a new exit.”

“Right!” Bendy jumped up and nodded. “And if we run into any more Searchers then I can help ya fight them off!”

Henry frowned, “Bendy, we really shouldn’t mess with that…other form.”

“What? Why not? I can take care of those creeps in no time!”

“I know bud,” Henry picked up Bendy as he stood. “But we’re really not sure how that form works and whenever you are in that form you seem to have trouble holding yourself together.”

“That was different. I got the hang of it now! C’mon Henry, I can help!”

Henry sighed and shook his head, “Let’s just…wait until we know more, okay bud? I don’t want you getting hurt.”

Bendy huffed and crossed his arms, “…fine.”

“Don’t be like that bud,” Henry gave the toon a light push. “It’s just to be safe. Once we find our feet we can test out your second form, okay?”

Bendy still looked cross but he nodded, albeit in a begrudging manner.

Henry chuckled and looked around the room. There wasn’t that much to really see that he hadn’t already but he wouldn’t want to leave something useful. He was glad he paused when he saw an old messenger bag wedged between two shelves. He pulled it out and shook off the dust before slinging it over his shoulder.

Bendy frowned at the bag, “What’s that for?”

“Well, I only have two hands. If we find useful stuff I can just drop it in here.”

“Oooh,” Bendy nodded. “Like bacon soup?”

“Yeah, like bacon soup.” And water if he could find some.

The room didn’t offer anything else aside from a few pens that Henry took, quietly hoping he wouldn’t need them, so he headed for the door. He carefully cracked it open, peeking out into the hall. Seeing no danger, he started making his way down it, looking for anything he could use as a weapon.

Aside from the ink splatters on the walls, floor and ceiling and a few pieces of broken wood, there wasn’t a lot.

Henry sighed to himself, “Better then nothing.” and picked up one of the least rotten looking boards before moving on down the hallway.

Bendy made a low hum and tilted his head, “Ya know…there might be a way where you don’t hav’ta be so on guard-”

“Not happening little guy. We’re waiting.”

“You’re no fun.”

Henry shrugged. He was all for advantages but he didn’t want Bendy to risk himself. The scare with Sammy was more then enough to take at least five years off his life and he didn’t have many more years to spare. So, better safe then sorry if someone were to ask him. So Bendy could pout all he wanted.

The pair stayed mostly quite as they made their way through the halls, with Henry pausing every once and awhile to peek around corners.

It was almost eerie how quite it was. The upstairs had been pretty quite as well but Henry hadn’t felt like danger was lurking in every ink puddle they passed. That threat had been in the music department but the speakers had given him a little white noise while he and Bendy had explored. Here, not even the floorboards seemed to creak.

 _“Maybe they were too soaked with ink to make noise?"_ That or he was just going nuts, being nuts was still on the table for him.

After several minutes of quite Bendy made a low groaning sound, “Gosh darnit, did all those creeps run away?”

“It’s better then getting swarmed by them,” Henry pointed out.

“Yeah, but this is boring.” Bendy huffed, crossing his arms, “You could at _least_ let me test my other form.”

Henry sighed and shook his head, “Not letting that go are you buddy.”

“Nope!” Bendy said, popping the _p_ before smirking up at Henry. “I’m gonna keep on buggin’ you until you let me try!”

Henry sighed and shook his head, “You were always a stubborn little toon.”

“Ya darn tootin’ right I am!” Bendy beamed, as if being bull headed was something to be proud of.

And Henry couldn’t fault him because he was pretty sure the stubborn streak came from him, “Let’s just get our footing a little bit. I’m not saying your help wouldn’t be appreciated but I don’t think now is the best time to be testing it out. Just trust me on this.”

Bendy frowned but didn’t say anything else, just plopped down on his page and continued to pout.

They moved on in silence once more.

Henry frowned as the hallways started blurring together, He wasn’t entirely sure if they were moving up or down but he didn’t want to end up going in circles. He looked over at a large barrel and decided that maybe a small break was in order. Henry settled on top of the barrel with a heavy sigh.

Bendy looked around then up at Henry, “Why’d we stop?”

“Just reorienting myself a bit buddy,” Henry said. “I’m not as young as I used to be.”

“You ain’t _that_ old Henry!” Bendy protested.

Henry snorted but didn’t argue. To Bendy, he probably wasn’t that old in terms of toon years but human years were a bit of a different matter, “Still, my joints are complaining. And besides that, I need to figure out a better plan then just wondering.”

Bendy nodded and started to tap his foot, “I agree with ya there Henry but I ain’t sure what kind of plan we can come up with. Everythin’ kinda looks the same down here.”

Henry sighed as he looked around. The upper floors had had a few distinct landmarks that he recognized and could use to guide himself, despite the renovations made in his absence. The new floors, however, seemed to be just empty hallway after empty hallway with nothing telling him if he was moving up or down or even if he wasn’t just walking in endless circles. He’d thought of trying to mark hallways they’d already been through but all he had were old pens that probably would not stand out well if ink dripped over the mark.

In short, Henry was left with very few options outside of aimlessly wondering and hoping for the best. And that option was even less attractive when Henry factored in the fact he had yet to collect any more supplies.

“Why does this place have so many empty hallways anyway?”

Bendy hummed, tapping his chin thoughtfully, “…plot?”

“What?”

“There was a lot of stuff that happened in my shorts because of the plot.”

Henry couldn’t help but chuckle a little at that. He could remember all the times continuity and pretty much all senses of logic had been thrown out the nearest window for the sake of an entertaining episode, “I’m afraid the real world doesn’t work like that buddy.”

Bendy huffed, “Well then I have no ideas.”

“Guess we’re stuck with wondering then,” Henry sighed as he stood back up and continued down another long empty hallway.

It felt like ages before they hit something other then rotting wood and puddles of ink. It was another hallway but it was coated in ink. It reminded Henry of the hallway on the music department floor only where that one had only had ink on the floor, the new hallway was caked in it from floor to ceiling and more seemed to steadily leak from the roof and walls. Henry grimaced when he stepped into the ink and his leg sunk down up to his knee, soaking his pants and sending a shiver up his spine.

Henry sloshed his way through the ink, the thick substance and his bad leg making progress much slower then it had been before.

“Hey Henry?”

“Hmm?” Henry hummed and looked down at Bendy.

“Ya hear something?”

Henry paused and cocked his head slightly to listen. At first, all he heard was the normal ambiance of the building and almost silent flowing sound of the ink coming out of the walls. Then he heard something else.

It was almost inseparable from the normal sounds but when he was listening Henry could hear something moving in the ink.

No sooner had he realized that, Henry felt something grab his leg and yank. He yelled in surprise as he fell and snapped his mouth shut only a second before think, sticky ink was pressing into him from all sides.

He could feel more things grabbing at him, wrapping around his arms and pulling harshly at his suspenders. Henry trashed around, twisting and pulling until he managed to pull himself back to the surface. He gasped for air, barely hearing Bendy’s panicked cries over the ink in his ears and his own hacking and heaving. Ink blurred Henry’s vision, he couldn’t see the attackers but he could feel them trying to pull him back under the ink. He swung blindly, trying to regain his footing enough to make a run for it.

He felt one ink monster grab onto the hand he was holding Bendy’s page with and the toon’s panicked cried growing louder. Henry jerked his arm away, freeing it and clutching Bendy close to his chest in an attempt to shield him.

“Henry!” Bendy wailed. “Put me in the ink! I can help! Let me help!”

The words barely reached Henry. He was in full fight or flight mode, focused only on getting away. But the initial surprise and the sheer number of ink monsters was working against him and Henry was soon submerged again.

Ink flooded into his mouth, thick and choking and Henry gagged and coughed. It did nothing but force more ink down his throat. His struggling was becoming feebler and he was getting lightheaded. He felt the paper clutched in his hand start to drift away and shakily tried to grab it back because, dammit, he was not going to lose the one good thing in this hell!

Then he was above the ink again.

Henry heaved as ink poured out of his mouth, his body shaking with the force of each cough. He blinked to clear his vision and say that the ink level had dropped significantly, enough so that the ink monsters were more visible. A low growl made Henry turn his head enough to look up.

The monstrous Bendy form was crouched over him, snarling at the ink monsters. He looked bigger then the first two times, almost filling the hallway with his bulk.

A few ink monsters closed in, one getting close enough to make a grab for Henry. Bendy slapped it away and lunged at the horde with another roar.

Henry slowly leveled himself up into a sitting position, looking around for some kind of weapon. His eye caught a large monkey wrench lying against the wall. More ink monster emerged in front of Henry, groaning and dragging themselves closer. Henry twisted away, diving for the wrench and slammed it into the closest monster. The remaining creatures seemed to shy back and Henry took the opportunity to clamber to his feet and gain some more leverage against them.

But even with Bendy holding off the majority of the horde and Henry managing to hold his own with the newly acquired weapon, Henry knew it was only a matter of time before the ink monsters overwhelmed them. He made his way closer to Bendy, smacking down monsters as he went.

“Bendy!” he yelled, “Buddy, we got to get going. Can you see an exit?

Bendy didn’t answer.

“Bendy!” Henry glanced over his shoulder. “Hey, Bendy!”

For a moment, Bendy still didn’t respond, then snapped around suddenly to face Henry.

Henry felt his stomach drop.

Bendy was grinning at him, far too wide and teeth too sharp, his visible eye was wide and the pupil shrunk down to a tiny pinprick of white. His features as a whole looked more warped and demonic then the last time Henry had seen the larger form.

Bendy slammed his hand down on the last ink monster, the rest seeming to have retreated suddenly, before turning more to fully towards Henry, smile somehow stretching even wider.

Henry took a small step back, “Bendy?”

Bendy snarled and raised one huge hand over his head.

Henry ducked out of the way only a moment before Bendy’s hand slammed into the wall, sending splinters and ink flying.

Henry raised both hands and took a few more steps back, “Buddy, calm down! It’s me, Henry!”

Bendy growled and lunged.

Henry jumped back, turned and ran. Talking didn’t seem to be working, he had no clue how this second form worked but he knew it had something to do with ink. _“If I can get out of this hallway it might fix this. I just have to keep moving.”_

He dropped the wrench and tried to push himself to move faster. Even with less ink in the way he still couldn’t seem to move quickly enough. Henry could feel Bendy’s presence behind him, making the ground shake as he perused him.

Rounding the corner, he almost cried in relief when he saw an area ahead that was mostly clean of ink. Bendy was getting closer, enough that Henry could almost feel him breathing down his neck.

_“Almost there, almost there, almost-”_

Bendy’s hand slammed down, shoving Henry face down into the ink.

He felt large fingers close around his torso, trapping one arm to his side, before he was lifted back up. Bendy turned him so they were face to face and then squeezed. Henry gasped as his ribs bowed under the pressure, constricting his already abused lungs, “Bud…stop…” Henry wheezed.

Bendy’s other hand came up and started to close around Henry’s head. Henry’s eyes widened in terror and he desperately reached his free hand towards Bendy’s face, “Please…”

His vision was graying around the edges and the hand over his head blocked one of his eyes. But he still stretched his hand out until his palm came into contact at the space between Bendy’s eyes.

Bendy’s hand paused and his smile faltered slightly.

A moment passed.

Then two.

And then it was like a switch had been flipped.

Bendy face fell from the demonic glee into one of pure horror, entire posture slackening and his hands loosened until he was careful cradling Henry.

Henry gasped in a lungful of air, chest heaving from the effort. His chest hurt, his leg hurt, his arm hurt, everything was just a mass of pain. But he managed a small, tried smile and a very quiet, “There you are bud.”

Bendy whined and the noise was so heartbreaking that Henry almost tried to keep himself awake. But even if he tried he was barely keeping his eyes open by that point, the adrenaline and fear wearing off and leaving his body shaky and weak.

He felt Bendy move a small ways and then he was being lowered onto a hard surface. Bendy’s hands started drawing back and Henry tried to grab onto one so he could reassure him, make sure he didn’t run because this wasn’t Bendy’s fault, but his body refused to respond.

The gray was rapidly taking over Henry’s vision and he knew passing out was unavoidable at that point. His head lolled slightly as he looked up at Bendy and he managed out a quite, breathy, “Is ‘kay.” Before everything went dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heeeeey.......so, it's been a year since the last update.....sorry.  
> I feel like such a long hiatus should have and explanation....basically whenever a new chapter of the game was released it kinda turned everything upside down and I decided to just wait until more stuff was out and then I realized it had been over a year since I wrote a new chapter and since chapter five is around the corner I figured, "...should probably update now."  
> So anyway! Story isn't dead, I'm going to finish it and hopefully get new chapters out a lot faster.   
> So until next time, have an awesome day everyday! :D


	6. Chapter 6

Bendy didn’t know what to do.

He had hurt _Henry._ He could have _killed_ Henry. He nearly had _killed Henry!_

He shouldn’t be anywhere near him. He was a dangerous monster that shouldn’t be anywhere near Henry.

But he couldn’t just leave Henry there, vulnerable and unprotected. If he left the Searchers might come back and attack when Henry couldn’t fight back.

He could feel his current form coming apart, trembling at the seams. That…thing in him wanted out, he wouldn’t be able to keep control for long. But he couldn’t go back to his page until he knew for sure Henry was safe but he wasn’t as long as Bendy was there because he had almost killed him.

Bendy whined and wished Henry hadn’t fallen asleep. Henry always knew what to do. He wanted to give Henry a little shake so he would wake up or at least just hold onto him to reassure himself that Henry was still breathing but then he might hurt him again.

Bendy jumped when a soup can rolling across the floor interrupted his thoughts.

He crouched and narrowed his eye at the hallway the can had rolled from. It was too dark to make out anything clearly but Bendy felt sure he saw something move.

 **“Show yourself,”** It was the first time Bendy had tried talking in his monster form and his voice startled him. It was deep and garbled, ink building in his throat and distorting his words. But it apparently was clear enough for the person hiding to start moving closer.

Each small _tap, tap, tap_ of footsteps caused Bendy to tense more as the mystery figure moved into the light.

The tension left Bendy so fast his form melted away and back to his paper state.

He looked up as Boris leaned over his page, tilting his head slightly and frowning in confusion. Bendy grinned back, wobbly and tired, “Hey big guy.”

Boris looked at Bendy then at Henry before looking back to Bendy.

“Yeah, Henry’s back.”

Boris blinked a few more times before his features narrowed into a determined expression. Bendy felt his page being lifted as Boris picked it up.

“We need ta…get ‘em safe,” Bendy explained, trying very hard not to join Henry in Sleepy Town. “He ain’t doin’ good.”

Boris nodded. He tucked Bendy into the front pocket of his overalls before grabbing Henry’s arm and pulling him up. Henry made a tiny groaning sound as he was hoisted fully upright and his head lolled onto Boris’ shoulder but he didn’t show any sign of waking up.

Bendy curled up on his page as Boris started moving. His eyes were heavy and his entire body felt shaky. But he did want to sleep, he had to make sure Henry was okay first! But…he could just rest his eyes for a minute, right? No harm in that.

Just one minute and then he could make sure Henry got somewhere safe and then…he wasn’t sure what would happen after that. He would probably have to leave. There wasn’t any way Henry would trust him again after that disaster.

But at that moment Boris was there to help look after Henry, so he could relax a little, just for a quick minute.

Bendy startled awake to a loud clang.

He looked around and realized he had fallen asleep for much longer then he intended. Nothing looked the same as before, the walls were much higher and the area was much darker. There wasn’t as much ink as there had been before but more pipes were visible along the walls and he could hear what sounded like steam hissing. And he wasn’t in Boris’ pocket anymore. Someone was holding him.

Bendy looked up at an awake and very tired looking Henry.

“Hey little guy,” Henry’s voice sounded rough, like he was barely able to get the words out, but he was awake and smiling and okay and Bendy just wanted to dance with joy and relief.

But then the memory of what he did came bubbling up and squashed down his happiness with guilt and shame. He ducked his head and absently played with the cuff of his boot.

Henry sighed and Bendy felt a finger carefully pat the back of his head, “We got stuff to talk about little buddy. But honestly? I think we both need a good nights sleep first.”

Bendy choose not to say anything, until he noticed something was missing, “Where’s Boris?”

Henry tilted the page so that Bendy could see the large metal door next to them, “He went to open the door, through a vent.”

Bendy frowned but continued to fiddle with his boot.

They only waited about minute before another loud clang rang out, followed by the sound of metal scraping against metal. Bendy looked up as the door opened enough for Boris’ head to pop out.

Henry stood up with a groan, “Hey Boris. Thanks for this.”

Boris ginned and pushed the door so that Henry could step through.

From his page Bendy couldn’t see a lot of the new space. He could tell it was small, most of the space was filled with barrels and crates and when Henry turned the page to face the room Bendy spied a large table on one side and an old stove on the far wall taking up a good chunk of space. It was still rotting, full of splintered wood and ink pipes chugging ominously but the new space had an air of calm that made more of the tension leak from Bendy’s spine.

Boris beckoned Henry down a little hallway, pass another doorway and into a small room. A hammock was strung up over a large chest and behind that were shelves filled with various knick-knacks. Against the wall on the left was an old cot wedged into a small niche. Boris opened the chest and pulled out and old pillow and blanket, tossing both onto the cot before patting it invitingly.

“Thanks,” Henry sighed as he settled onto the cot.

He set Bendy’s page on a small self that overlooked the space the cot was in. Bendy watched as Henry arranged the pillow a blanket, took off his shoes and the satchel and settle down on the cot. He fell asleep almost immediately and Bendy relaxed further.

He looked at Boris, who had settled onto the hammock and was looking at him.

Bendy grinned, “Hey-ya buddy, haven’t seen you in awhile.”

Boris nodded and grinned.

“Don’t suppose you know what’s goin’ on here?

Boris frowned and shrugged.

Bendy sighed and laid down on his line, “That’s okay. Me and Henry don’t know either. But now there are three of us to figure it out and Henry says we’re gonna escape, bet he’ll bring you too.”

Boris let out a little huff and stretched out on his hammock.

“Yeah, we’ll talk tomorrow,” Bendy yawned and settle down for another nap.

 

 

Bendy blinked awake to the sound of someone plucking at a banjo. He blinked a few time until the room was more in focus. Boris was no longer in the hammock but Henry was still on the cot. He was sitting on the edge of the cot and faced away from Bendy, but the toon felt Henry look much better then he had before Boris brought them there.

Bendy sat up and rubbed the last remnants of sleep from his eyes as he watched Henry and frowned when he noticed he seemed to be rubbing at his leg. He started to ask what Henry was doing…but hesitated. Henry said they were going to talk after they rested and there was a chance Henry would put him back on the wall and leave him behind. Or maybe he would leave Bendy on the page on the little self while he and Boris escaped. The thought of being stuck in the safe house forever made Bendy curl into himself while a small part of him hissed that he deserved it after what he did.

And then Henry looked up and smiled, “Morning buddy, you sleep well?”

And Bendy couldn’t help but grin back, “Yes sir-y.” Even if Henry wanted to part ways, he wasn’t a cruel man. He would probably find a nice long wall for Bendy to stay on.

Henry stood up stiffly and Bendy winced at the sound of joints popping as he stretched, “Good to hear.” Henry frowned down at his shirt then looked back at Bendy, “I saw a bathroom last night. Why don’t we see if the water still runs in this place?”

Bendy stood up, “But what about-” He stopped himself. It was selfless but Bendy wanted to stay with Henry as long as he could. And if he conveniently forgot that Henry wanted to talk and it led to just a few extra minutes of being with Henry? Whoops, honest mistake.

Henry picked up Bendy’s page and smiled, “I can talk and wash at the same time.”

Me and my big mouth, Bendy thought. Well, at least he would still be around for a little while.

The bathroom was right next to the bedroom, only a few steps into the hallway. Henry called a good morning to Boris before turning into the bathroom and moving straight towards the row of sinks. Propping Bendy against the mirror, Henry turned on one of the sinks. The pipes groaned and complained but the faucet spat out reasonably clean looking water.

“Eureeka,” Henry grinned as he pulled off his shirt. “It’s not a bath and washing machine but its better then nothing.”

Bendy tilted his head a bit and nodded. Henry was starting to look a bit like a Searcher with the amount he’s accumulated.

There wasn’t soap but Henry just stuck his shirt under that water and started scrubbing out the ink, “…Guess we should take care of the elephant in the room.”

Bendy winced and looked down, bracing himself for the inevitable.

“First things first, I’m not leaving you behind.”

Bendy’s head snapped up, “B-but…I…”

“It wasn’t you buddy, nether one of us could have guessed that would happen,” Bendy couldn’t help but relax as Henry talked, keeping his voice soothing and calm. “But now that we do know we can be more careful about it. You were fine back in the music department so I’m guessing you have some kind of time limit before things get…overwhelming.”

Bendy nodded slowly. The music department transformations had been different, mostly because the first one had surprised him and the second time the only thing holding him together was a steady mantra of _‘Henry needs me, I gotta save Henry’_. The hallway fight on the other hand…

“I felt like myself for awhile,” Bendy said. “But…it’s hard to describe…I think at some point I stopped thinkin’ I needed to help ya and I just…wanted to destroy.” Even with the fuzziness, recalling the time where he wasn’t himself made Bendy shudder. Destroy was a very mild way of describing how he felt when he was chasing Henry.

Henry smiled as he wrung water from his shirt, “So we’ll be careful around large bodies of ink and if you do transform we’ll just have to get you out as fast as possible.”

“…okay.”

“Hey, cheer up,” Henry carefully tapped Bendy’s chin. “We’ve caught a pretty good brake now. We can stay here a bit, recover and stock up, and Boris knows this part of the studio so we won’t have to wander aimlessly anymore. And I can finally get all this ink out of my hair!”

Bendy snorted. Henry’s hair did look pretty gross.

“There’s the little devil I know,” Henry gave another little tap before turning around to hang his shirt on one of the stalls.

Bendy watched for a moment but then frowned when he saw Henry’s shoulder. Henry had an undershirt on but Bendy could see something peeking out from under the strap on Henry’s left shoulder. It didn’t look like an ink stain but it didn’t look like the rest of Henry’s skin.

Bendy wondered if it was an injury but before he could ask Henry was back at the sink and sticking his head under the water.

Later then. If it wasn’t bothering Henry then Bendy could ask later.

While Henry was scrubbing ink out of his hair, Boris’ wondered in, a big dopey grin on his face and a steaming bowl in his hands.

Bendy jumped up and waved, “Mornin’ Boris!”

Henry looked up and grinned, “What do you have there big guy?”

Boris beamed as he showed Henry the bowl. Bendy couldn’t see in it but the fact there was only one kind of food in the studio made Bendy suspect it was bacon soup.

Henry nodded at the bowl of most likely bacon soup, “That looks great buddy.”

Boris grinned wider at the complement and tried to push the bowl into Henry’s hands.

“Hey, hang on a minute, I’m kinda soaked right now. Why don’t you take that to the table and we’ll catch up.”

Boris titled his head a bit but nodded and left the bathroom. Henry chuckled and shook the water from his hair as best he could before picking up Bendy and following after their host.

Boris was waiting at the table, once again happily plucking away at a banjo. Henry settled down in the second chair and set Bendy down, “You want some little buddy?”

“Uhhh…” Bendy looked at the soup bowl, then back at Henry. “I can’t really eat that.”

Henry chuckled and produced a pen from his pocket, “If I can redraw your leg then drawing you some breakfast shouldn’t be too hard.”

That…was a good point when Bendy thought about it, “….worth a shot!”

Henry chuckled again and set to work. Bendy watched as Henry quickly sketched out a bowl filled with soup and a spoon, finishing it off with thin wisps of steam before leaning back and grabbing his own bowl, “You eating Boris?”

Boris shook his head and patted his stomach.

“Already ahead of the game huh?” Henry chuckled before tucking into his own food.

Bendy started on his soup, surprised at how good it tasted and how warm it was. Boris continued to strum away, playing aimless little notes, and the entire atmosphere of the room had a calm coziness that Bendy hadn’t felt in a long time.

Henry leaned forward, enough for Bendy to see the mark on his shoulder again. Bendy frowned at it as he set his soup aside. Yes, he and Henry had made up and Henry wasn’t planning on leaving him behind but if Bendy was responsible for the mark on Henry’s back….

“…um…Henry?”

Henry looked down, spoon still in his mouth, and made a humming noise.

“Can I ask you somethin’?”

Henry swallowed and set his food down, “Sure, what’s on your mind bud?”

Bendy hesitated briefly, glancing at Henry shoulder, “I couldn’t help but…uh, notice…what’s that on your shoulder?" 

Henry’s eyes widened slightly and he turned to look at the said shoulder. Bendy tensed when Henry reached up and grabbed it, “…so you saw it…”

Bendy jumped up, “D-did it happen here? Did I-”

“No, no, it’s an old wound, it wasn’t you buddy,” Henry was quick to sooth Bendy. “But…it did happen here. Years ago.” Henry sighed. “Happened when I found out Joey wasn’t crediting me for my work. I was mad as hell when I found out, I was the co-founder and Joey was acting like he made everything happen by himself. I guess…” Henry paused, closing his eyes and gritting his teeth. “I learned a lot about Joey at that moment. I tried reasoning with him but all he cared about was his own gain. I was just a handy means to an end. Little more then tool.” Henry crossed his arms on the table and leaned forward. “I gave up a lot for the studio, I sacrificed everything for our dream and Joey…I was frustrated and I couldn’t accept working with someone who would stab me in the back like that. So I told Joey I was leaving.” Henry opened his eyes with a grimace and rubbed his shoulder again. “Jackass threw a letter opener at me, ripped a pretty good hole in me. And then tried to tell me he was aiming for the damn door.” A humorless laugh let Henry. “I knew it was just another lie so I stabbed the thing into the door for him, packed up my desk and left.”

Silence hung in the air, even Boris had stopped playing his banjo. Bendy fidgeted and looked up at Henry, “Did…did you wanna?”

The hard lines in Henry’s face softened and he let out another breathy laugh, “Not really. Working with Joey was a nightmare but I still loved animating….guess that’s why I came running when I got that letter. I thought…I really thought that Joey wanted to fix things…kinda stupid of me to think-” Henry was nearly tackled out of his chair by Boris, who had dashed around the table and wrapped Henry up in a hug.

“Hey, I’m fine Boris,” Henry patted Boris’ face. “It was years ago.”

“But it still ain’t right,” Bendy said.

Henry smiled at him. He wiggled an arm free from Boris’ hug and picked up Bendy, “No, it isn’t. But then again, if I hadn’t been stupid I wouldn’t have met you or Boris.”

“You ain’t stupid,” Bendy reached up to hug Henry’s thumb. “You just got good timin’.”

Henry laughed, bright and genuine and Bendy beamed back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I told ya'll I intended to get chapters out in a more timely manner and I fully intend to own up to that promise. I am going to post a chapter once a month at the very least. So ya'll better harass me if I don't fulfill that goal!  
> Hope everyone enjoys the new chapter! Be sure to check out ShinyZango on tumblr and have an awesome day!

**Author's Note:**

> Hey oh readers!  
> Okay, so this AU is not mine but I really love it and I wanted to do a fic.  
> You can find the original creator of the 2D Bendy AU here --> http://shinyzango.tumblr.com/  
> Leave what you thought about the chapter down in the comments, feedback is my lifeblood. And I hope you have an awesome day.  
> See ya'll next time you lovely people.


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